diff --git a/docs/profiles.rst b/docs/profiles.rst
index 882c6d5f7a..2b9a42507e 100644
--- a/docs/profiles.rst
+++ b/docs/profiles.rst
@@ -240,9 +240,14 @@ Get the total number of monthly submissions
 
 This gets the total number of submissions made in a month to a specific user's forms.
 The result is a count of the submissions to both private and public forms.
+
+If there are no private forms then only the number of submissions to the public forms is returned, and vice versa.
+If there are no submissions, then an empty dictionary is returned.
+
 Use the month and year as query parameters to get the total number of submissions for a specific month.
 If no query parameters are used, the result is the number of submissions of the current month.
-If one query parameter is used, then the other is assumed to be the current month or year.
+If only month is used, then the year is assumed to be the current year. And if only year is passed, then the month is
+assumed to be the current year.
 
 
 Example
diff --git a/onadata/apps/api/tests/viewsets/test_user_profile_viewset.py b/onadata/apps/api/tests/viewsets/test_user_profile_viewset.py
index e4747edd5f..ecbc287306 100644
--- a/onadata/apps/api/tests/viewsets/test_user_profile_viewset.py
+++ b/onadata/apps/api/tests/viewsets/test_user_profile_viewset.py
@@ -852,7 +852,7 @@ def test_get_monthly_submissions(self):
         response = view(request, user=self.user.username)
         self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200)
         self.assertFalse(self.xform.shared)
-        self.assertEquals(response.data, [{'private': count1}])
+        self.assertEquals(response.data, {'private': count1})
 
         # publish another form, make submission and make it public
         self._publish_form_with_hxl_support()
@@ -867,8 +867,7 @@ def test_get_monthly_submissions(self):
         request = self.factory.get('/', **self.extra)
         response = view(request, user=self.user.username)
         self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200)
-        self.assertEquals(response.data, [{'private': count1,
-                                           'public': count2}])
+        self.assertEquals(response.data, {'private': count1, 'public': count2})
 
     def test_get_monthly_submissions_with_year_and_month_params(self):
         """
@@ -892,7 +891,7 @@ def test_get_monthly_submissions_with_year_and_month_params(self):
         response = view(request, user=self.user.username)
         self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200)
         self.assertFalse(self.xform.shared)
-        self.assertEquals(response.data, [{'private': count}])
+        self.assertEquals(response.data, {'private': count})
 
     def test_monthly_submissions_with_month_param(self):
         """
@@ -914,7 +913,7 @@ def test_monthly_submissions_with_month_param(self):
         response = view(request, user=self.user.username)
         self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200)
         self.assertFalse(self.xform.shared)
-        self.assertEquals(response.data, [{'private': count}])
+        self.assertEquals(response.data, {'private': count})
 
     def test_monthly_submissions_with_year_param(self):
         """
@@ -942,4 +941,4 @@ def test_monthly_submissions_with_year_param(self):
         response = view(request, user=self.user.username)
         self.assertEquals(response.status_code, 200)
         self.assertFalse(self.xform.shared)
-        self.assertEquals(response.data, [{'private': count}])
+        self.assertEquals(response.data, {'private': count})
diff --git a/onadata/apps/api/viewsets/user_profile_viewset.py b/onadata/apps/api/viewsets/user_profile_viewset.py
index 3fafb4db9b..98e7325a24 100644
--- a/onadata/apps/api/viewsets/user_profile_viewset.py
+++ b/onadata/apps/api/viewsets/user_profile_viewset.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from past.builtins import basestring  # pylint: disable=redefined-builtin
 
 from django.conf import settings
+from django.core.validators import ValidationError
 from django.db.models import Count
 
 from rest_framework import serializers, status
@@ -177,11 +178,20 @@ def monthly_submissions(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
         month_param = self.request.query_params.get('month', None)
         year_param = self.request.query_params.get('year', None)
 
+        # check if parameters are valid
+        if month_param:
+            if not month_param.isdigit() or \
+               int(month_param) not in range(1, 13):
+                raise ValidationError(u'Invalid month provided as parameter')
+        if year_param:
+            if not year_param.isdigit() or len(year_param) != 4:
+                raise ValidationError(u'Invalid year provided as parameter')
+
         # Use query parameter values for month and year
         # if none, use the current month and year
         now = datetime.datetime.now()
-        month = month_param if month_param else str(now.month)
-        year = year_param if year_param else str(now.year)
+        month = month_param if month_param else now.month
+        year = year_param if year_param else now.year
 
         instance_count = Instance.objects.filter(
             xform__user=profile.user, xform__deleted_at__isnull=True,
@@ -189,4 +199,4 @@ def monthly_submissions(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
                 'xform__shared').annotate(num_instances=Count('id'))
 
         serializer = MonthlySubmissionsSerializer(instance_count, many=True)
-        return Response(serializer.data)
+        return Response(serializer.data[0])
diff --git a/onadata/libs/serializers/monthly_submissions_serializer.py b/onadata/libs/serializers/monthly_submissions_serializer.py
index 39b30d0a5e..2fa779f690 100644
--- a/onadata/libs/serializers/monthly_submissions_serializer.py
+++ b/onadata/libs/serializers/monthly_submissions_serializer.py
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ def to_representation(self, data):
         for i in result:
             label = 'public' if i['xform__shared'] else 'private'
             result_dictionary[label] = i['num_instances']
-
         return [result_dictionary]